BP BANNED FROM GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) temporarily banned BP from receiving government contracts on Wednesday because of its handling of the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

The ban does not affect existing contracts.

It’s unclear how, or whether, the ban will affect the company’s political activity. But through Sept. 30, BP appeared to be continuing its slow climb back on Capitol Hill from the (partly self-imposed) purgatory it had inhabited since the spill.

In the first three-quarters of the year, BP spent more than $7 million lobbying government agencies and lawmakers. That’s on track to beat the $8.4 million it spent last year, which was an increase from the $7.4 million BP laid out for lobbying in 2010.

That 2010 number was a precipitous drop from the company’s 2009 high of $16 million, and was direct fallout from the Deepwater Horizon tragedy.

BP most frequently lobbies on issues related to energy and nuclear power, taxes and fuel, and gas and oil. Of its 54 lobbyists, 39 have been through the revolving door, though none worked at EPA.

OUTSIDE GROUPS, MOVING ON: Now that the campaign season is over, super PACs and other outside groups are aiming to spend their vast resources in a different way: lobbying.

In spite of their often unsuccessful attempts to help conservatives win office, super PACs like Karl Rove’s American Crossroads and the tea party’s Club for Growth are planning an advertising campaign on taxes and other issues, the New York Times reported.

A group of 20 outside organizations signed on to a letter opposing tax increases, claiming that conservatives stood together on the issue. How are the groups funded? Few people know. Most of them are 501(c) organizations under the tax code and are not required to disclose their donors. The groups include the tea party-leaning Club for Growth, which has many arms, including a super PAC to which major GOP donor Bob Perry, among others, has given $1 million; the super PAC spent $19 million in independent expenditures in the 2012 election cycle. Americans for Tax Reform, a group run by anti-tax activist Grover Norquist, is also among the signatories. ATR spent nearly $16 million on various congressional races; it doesn’t reveal its donors, but Karl Rove’s Crossroads GPS reported giving it $4 million in 2011.

THE RISKS OF BEING A COUCH POTATO: A new study in Environmental Science & Technology found that up to 85 percent of couches contain a potentially toxic flame retardant.

Other dangerous chemicals were found in a smaller percentage of sofas.

The report triggered advocates to urge passage of the Safe Chemicals Act, which would help regulate the use of harmful chemicals.

One hundred different companies have lobbied the bill during the past two years. We’re betting they’re paying close attention to congressional reaction to the study.

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